Goops

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Thick, sticky substances or globs often unpleasant in texture or appearance; messy or viscous matter typically involved in creative or playful activities; informal term for gooey or slimy material frequently encountered in everyday situations
2. Viscid or gelatinous blobs that are typically sticky or messy; substances resembling glue or mucus that are difficult to clean or handle; informal label for any soft, wet, and clinging mass of matter often associated with dirt or clutter
3. Clumps or masses of sticky or slimy material that are tactilely unpleasant; informal nomenclature for various kinds of viscous or gloppy substances; commonly used to describe goo-like, messy residues found on surfaces or in hands

Etymology: "Goops" is simply the plural of "goop", a noun for sticky, messy substances, so the word's history is really the history of its singular. "Goop" dates to the 1930s, and its origin is uncertain: it may be a variant of "goo", a word for a sticky, viscous mess. The likeliest relatives are "gloop" and "glob", which share the same pattern of a consonant cluster followed by a short, wet-sounding vowel and a hard ending. Whether these words influenced one another or simply grew from the same sound-based instinct for gooey stuff is not settled. What is clear is that "goop" belongs to a family of informal words built to sound like the stuff they describe.

Synonyms: globs, blobs, muck, goo, slime

Antonyms: solids, particles, granules, powder, flakes